Midsummer

Midsummer is a big deal in Sweden - everyone celebrates with their family or friends, ideally somewhere in the countryside. It's a bit like Christmas except obviously it is more likely to be warm and sunny. Dancing around a maypole seems to be a vital part, along with eating shrimp and pickled herring - all washed down with aquavit.


 Most swedes have a summer house somewhere in the countryside - normally something fairly small and basic - so they all head there for Midsummer (and also for most weekends in summer). This means that the city is really quite quiet this weekend.

Since we don't have a summer house, we followed the crowds and went to Skansen. This is the maypole at Skansen which we merrily danced around - here is a man dancing like an elephant.

Here is yet another photo of 'gosh look how light it is'. This one taken from our balcony at sunset (10:45pm) on the longest day. (In the middle of winter the sun will set at 2:45pm - yikes!).